Reading Notes: West Africa, Reading B

Elephant and Wren

This story is a lot more of what I would expect a spider to be like. It lied and got an elephant and not only did it break the rules to win an elephant but they had to make this spider worse it didn't want to share its dinner with his children and family so instead of an elephant he chased a tiny bird and lost the bird and the elephant and went hungry. The thing that was so sad about this story is that this cycle is probably while his kids will end up selfish like him continuing a cycle of bad behavior. 

Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked

This was a very sweet story. I like that the tiger and man were both scared of each other but became friends and it wasn't a story about why all men are bad and that the man in the story really cared about the tiger it made me really happy while reading this story and I enjoyed to see that the man was morning the loss of one of his friends. It was a sweet story that had a happy ending and I was really happy to have read this. I think what worked so well in this story is the impact that the characters had on each other and that despite their differences they actually had more in common. I think that the world today is so divided but if people were to really talk I think that most people would find that they actually have a lot more in common then they would have had differences and this story was able to give me hope. I really think that we still have a long way to go as a species and although sometimes we take steps backward I don't think that hope should ever be lost. 

Tiger Roar

Bibliography

West African Folktales by William H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair, with drawings by Cecilia Sinclair (1917).